Of course by the time she got back to the kitchen to start making their drinks she forgot about the salad dressing issue. Lori watched some of her co-workers in amazement. They were cheerful about the job and good at it. They laughed and had fun with their customers and never seemed to forget anything or get flustered. It was like watching aliens perform an incomprehensible feat. Lori knew she was not cut out to be a waitress and desperately wanted to quit.
It was not an option. Her parents were so stressed about money right now, they would freak out if she quit or got fired. Lori gave most of her tips to her mother every day for groceries. Cash that should have been going into her savings account for her move to Hawaii. Getting out of Eugene was more important than ever, but everything was working against her. The whole new scene at home was too weird. Sometimes it felt good to help her parents, like she wasn’t a needy kid anymore, but most of the time it was stressful and so not fair. Her mother had become a fanatic about not spending money, and her dad was lost. The only bright spot in her life was the time she spent with her sweetie, but things were not good for him right now either. Lori dreaded the day her parents found out about their relationship. If they could just get to Maui and start their own life together, everything would get better.
“Lori, we’re out of to-go boxes up here and it’s your station’s responsibility.” Gina, a skinny woman who looked eighty but was probably not, hollered at Lori from the dessert bar. As lead waitress Gina bossed everyone around but she also helped Lori when she got too far behind. Lori tried not to think mean thoughts about her.
“I’ll get them.” She walked away from her half-finished drink order and hurried to the closet where paper products were kept.
“Bring some napkins too!”
Another thing she hated about this job; it was too damn loud in the restaurant. The roar of the dishwasher, the whine of the blenders going all the time, food servers shouting at each other just to be heard. The constant chaos wore on her nerves.
She loaded her arms with two sizes of to-go boxes and grabbed a big sleeve of napkins. From the corner of her eye, she saw the manager slide out of his office. Oh shit.
“Need some help?” Greg slid up behind her in the narrow hallway and reached for the napkins she was holding. His breath tickled the back of her neck, warm at first, then cooler as he inhaled deeply, taking in her scent. His hand slid over her right breast, pausing slightly, then slipped lower.
Lori jerked away and lost her load of paper products, which tumbled to the floor. Shit. She shot Greg a dirty look, then squatted and started to gather up the boxes. He kneeled to help her, his face level with her breasts. “I need to see you in the office after your shift.” His voice was a slithery whisper.
Lori pretended not to hear. She gathered the last of the packages and scooted away. Her heart pounded in her ears and her legs shook. The bastard. God, she hated him. What would happen if she didn’t go see him after her shift? Would he cut her hours? Or fire her?
Lori stashed the boxes and napkins in the space below the soda fountain. When she reached for the drink tray she’d started, she realized someone had taken the two chocolate shakes she’d already made. Oh shit. She’d have to start over. The day’s endurance contest had begun.
Chapter 17
Jackson squared his shoulders and walked into Surgery 10 for the third time in two days. Spending this much time with the dead was unnerving. He didn’t know how pathologists handled it and was glad the autopsy was on an adult male this time. Women and children were harder to watch. Dead men often had it coming. Everything he’d learned on this case pointed to the notion Jared had somehow brought this on his family. He had stepped outside of the bounds of socially acceptable behavior, and someone he associated with had reacted violently.
Rudolph Konrad’s cheeks were flushed pink, popping out of his pale round face. Had the pathologist slipped a little bourbon in his coffee at lunch? Jackson had never seen the pathologist in the afternoon before. The medical examiner was not in the small room. “Where’s Gunderson?” Jackson asked, grabbing a white overcoat from the wall hooks.
“He’s out on a call.” Konrad rolled the narrow table toward the stainless steel drawers. “An older woman was found dead in her bathroom. Probably natural causes, but that’s the ME’s job to determine.” The pathologist opened the door on the left, then looked back at Jackson. “I could use a hand.”
Jackson ignored the signals his body was sending and stepped up to the sliding drawer. He had handled plenty of dead bodies. Why was he feeling squeamish? Was it the prednisone? His doctor had warned him it could play havoc with his emotions.
Using the sheet for leverage, they pulled Jared’s two-hundred-pound body from the drawer tray to the wheeled table in a quick concentrated effort. Jackson noticed Jared’s well defined stomach muscles and large quads, indicating he was athletic, perhaps even a runner. The three gaping wounds on the corpse’s chest held his eyes though. They overlapped, digging a hole straight into the man’s heart. The only other body Jackson had seen with this much knife damage had been a homeless man who’d gotten into a fight with another vagrant. None of the homeless guy’s six knife wounds would have killed him if he’d made it to a hospital.
“I’ll look for trace evidence first,” Konrad said, rolling the table under the bright overhead light. He lifted Jared’s left hand and took scrapings from under the nails. A white stripe circled the finger where Jared’s wedding ring had been, and dark grease rings filled the lower curve of his fingernails, as if he’d done some engine repair recently. The victim’s face and arms were tanned from working sleeveless outside, but the rest of his body had never seen the sun.
“The victim has no defense wounds, no blood under his nails, and no extraneous hair or fiber.” Konrad’s voice had a little more energy than it had this morning. Was he finally warming up to him?
Jackson forced himself to keep quiet and wait until Konrad had finished his inch-by-inch scrutiny of Jared’s skin and head. As the pathologist examined Jared’s torso, he said, “This is a recent wound. Maybe in the last few weeks.”
Jackson leaned in over the body. A few inches from Jared’s belly button was a roundish dark-pink scar where something small and sharp had penetrated the skin. “What do you suppose caused that?” Jackson said.
“I have no clue.”
Chapter 18
Sixteen days earlier, May 15
Jared pulled into the driveway, relieved to be home. He’d spent the afternoon at the employment office, sitting through a class about job interviews. He’d learned a few things, such as to come prepared with questions for the employer and to answer in complete sentences, but overall it was not worth the time. The class about improving his resume had been better. Until that point, Jared didn’t have a resume.
As he trotted into the house, Nick called out, “Hey, Dad.”
“Hey, son. How’s your day?” Carla didn’t like them to yell across the house, but Jared thought it was friendly. He was grateful his son still liked him.
In the kitchen Nick stood in front of the refrigerator. “I’m just getting a glass of Kool-Aid.”
“Pour me one too.” Carla had stopped buying soda after she was laid off. She said they had to save their food budget for food. Carla had also decided Jared couldn’t spend any money on beer either. She was right about the priorities but it annoyed him. Now he drank more at the bar and less at home.
“A letter from the court came today,” Nick said, pointing to the table.
“Oh boy.” Jared slid the envelope open and scanned the thickly worded paragraphs. “Your first session at Looking Glass is next Tuesday, but we’re supposed to go in beforehand and fill out the paperwork.”
“I’m sorry, Dad.” His son apologized for the tenth time. “Bringing the pot here was stupid. I didn’t even like it.”
“It’s okay, Nick. I know you’re not a stoner. And if we can’t pay for the program, they’ll just kick you out. They can’t send you
to juvie because we don’t have money.” Could they? Jared didn’t really know, but it didn’t seem fair and he still trusted the system to be fair. Especially to kids. “How was school today?”
“The same.”
“It’s almost summer break. Let’s plan a camping trip.”
Nick’s face lit up. “Waldo Lake?”
“Sure. You can bring a friend too. We’ll leave the women home this time.”
Nick shifted from one foot to the other. Jared waited him out.
“I didn’t steal Uncle Kevin’s Lou Gehrig card. I want you to believe me.”
“I do believe you, son.” Jared smiled and tried to look convincing. This was one of those situations where he simply didn’t know what to believe and might never know the whole truth. The card had not been found and no charges were filed. Jared had decided to let the whole thing go. Nick needed his trust and he would give it to him. Jared thought it was more likely Shane had taken the card, and Kevin was mistaken about when he saw it last.
They heard Carla’s car pull in, glanced at each other, and scooted out of the kitchen. Jared grabbed a sports magazine and headed to the back porch. He wanted to sit in front of the TV and watch something mindless, but it made him feel guilty to watch television during the day when he should be working or looking for a job. He glanced at his watch: 4:12. He had stayed out there putting in applications for as long as he could.
Carla came outside and sat in the lawn chair next to him. “How’d your day go?”
“Crappy. I turned in three applications at restaurants that weren’t hiring and spent the afternoon learning how to get through an interview I won’t be called for. How was your day?”
“Even crappier.”
Jared reached over and held his wife’s hand. He was plenty worried, but Carla took it all into her heart and let it eat away at her. There was nothing he could do or say to comfort her. He had tried.
After a moment, she said, “I’m worried about Lori.”
“Me too. She seems unhappy.”
“She told me yesterday someone was sexually harassing her.”
A bolt of adrenaline shot him forward in the chair. “Who?”
“Lori wouldn’t tell me, so I think it’s someone we know. Someone she’s protecting.”
“When I find out who it is, I’m gonna kick his sorry ass.”
Carla sighed. “That is why Lori didn’t give me his name. She knew you’d react this way. She mostly wanted to know how to handle it.”
“What did you tell her?”
“I told her to say ‘sexual harassment’ to him anytime his behavior was inappropriate and to stay away from him as much as possible.”
Jared didn’t want to know, yet he had to ask. “What exactly is happening? Is he grabbing her ass?”
“Lori was pretty vague.”
“Goddamnit.” Jared jumped up and paced the small porch. “Is it that mama’s boy manager at the restaurant?”
“I asked her and she said no.” Carla pushed her hands through her hair.
“Who is it? A teacher?”
“School is almost over for the year. Maybe this will resolve itself.”
“And if it’s not a teacher? Where else is Lori hanging out?”
“She’s at Jenna’s sometimes.” Carla bit her lip and looked away.
“What are you thinking?”
“She’s been over at Tracy and Kevin’s a lot lately. The last time we were over there, I thought I saw Kevin looking at her that way.”
“No shit? Are you sure?” Jared had never warmed to Kevin, even after all these years, but Kevin was his sister’s husband. This could cause huge trouble between him and Tracy.
“It was just a look, Jared,” Carla said, trying to sooth him. “I don’t know what was in his mind. Forget I said anything.” His wife patted his knee. “Why don’t you go watch some TV and forget about everything for a while. I know you want to.” She gave him one of her special smiles. For a moment, Jared’s heart felt light because Carla still loved him. She went inside to get on the internet, while he kept thinking about the jackass who was coming on to his daughter.
Later, Jared had to get out of the house. When he was working, all he wanted to do was come home and relax. Now that he was unemployed, he was restless and constantly wanted to leave. His kissed Carla, told her not to worry, then hustled out to his truck, which now had a For Sale sign in the window. He’d told Carla he was just going for a drive, but he knew he would end up at the Time Out Tavern. One beer, he told himself. A single beer wouldn’t make or break their budget. Maybe he’d run into a friend who would buy him a second beer.
The tavern was on a side street in west Eugene in the middle of an industrial area. The location was genius, catching factory workers as they left their miserable jobs. Once you started drinking in a certain place and got to know everyone, you kept coming back, even if you quit the factory or moved across town. Jared had been coming here since his brief employment at Whittier Wood Products nearly fifteen years ago.
The bar was nothing special. Dark, noisy, and crowded, like any drinking hole. The pool tables and dart boards were a nice addition because they got Jared off his barstool every once in a while. Usually the moment he crossed the threshold he felt better. Someone always called out his name and the bartender poured him a Miller on tap without even asking.
Tonight was no exception. Yet neither of those things took the edge off. Jared nursed his beer and chatted with Charlie, an old timer who’d been coming to the tavern longer than Jared.
Around eight, Roy Engall walked in with two of his crew. It was the first time Jared had seen Roy since his layoff. Adrenaline rushed into his gut. Jared had typed up the blackmail note but hadn’t delivered it yet. He’d been holding out, hoping he’d find a job. There were no jobs and they hadn’t paid their rent this month.
He and Roy nodded at each other and Roy went to the other side of the room. Darrell and Tyler, his ex-co-workers, stopped by and asked friendly questions about his job search. Jared appreciated the gesture, but he didn’t care to be around Roy’s stepson Tyler. A little later, the bartender set another beer in front of him and said it was from Roy. Jared felt a pang of guilt. He planned to deliver the letter tomorrow, maybe leave it in Roy’s truck. He didn’t want Noni to see it first.
Jared drank the beer and played a game of pool with Darrell. His fellow painter sunk the eight ball too early and bought him another beer. Jared drank half, then decided to go home. A moment later, his brother-in-law walked in. They hadn’t spoken to each other since Nick had been arrested. Tracy had called and Jared had responded politely, but his sister was on his shit list too. Jared nodded at Kevin, then turned away. He knew he should leave the bar immediately. Yet he didn’t.
He kept his eye on Kevin, watching him flirt with the cocktail waitress. When had his brother-in-law become such a shit? Jared would never forgive him for calling the cops on Nick and accusing his son of stealing, especially when Kevin’s own son was an addict, and consequently, had once been a part-time thief. Now Kevin was humiliating Jared’s sister by openly flirting with every woman in reach. Had the dog fucker also touched his sweet little Lori?
He eyeballed Kevin for nearly an hour. Jared was just getting up to go home when he saw Kevin pay his tab at the bar. Jared slid off his barstool and strode toward the door, feeling a little unsteady. How many beers had he drunk? It would be good to get outside for some fresh air. After he talked to Kevin, he’d go home. Maybe take a walk first to sober up or call Carla to come get him if he had to.
In the parking lot he found Kevin’s van and leaned up against the driver’s side door to wait. Jared thought about the For Sale sign in the back window of his own truck and felt a fresh wave of anger.
He heard the crunch of gravel and looked up to see Kevin. “What do you want, Jared? Say what you have to say, then get out of my way. I’m not in the mood for trouble.” Kevin stopped four feet away.
“You’ve sure caused plent
y of it.”
“I didn’t start this shit.” Kevin’s breath reeked of cigarettes. He had supposedly quit years ago.
“Why the hell did you call the police on Nick? That was out of line.”
“He stole my Lou Gehrig. It’s worth two grand. I’m supposed to let that go?”
“You’re supposed to talk to us. We’re family.”
“You would have denied it then, like you’re denying it now.”
“He didn’t do it.” Jared lurched forward, closing the gap between them. “You’re mistaken about when you saw the card last.”
“Bullshit.”
“What about Shane? We know he’s stolen things in the past. He’s been arrested for it.”
“Only when he was using and never from us.”
“Maybe he’s using again.”
“He’s not.” Kevin’s jaw locked in place.
“You’re so fucking blind when it comes to Shane. I know he’s your son, but get real.” Jared let the anger swell and his voice got loud. “The police searched our house and arrested Nick. He had a joint in his pocket and now he has a possession charge.”
“I didn’t mean for any of that to happen.” Kevin didn’t sound sorry.
“I think you wanted it to happen so Shane wasn’t the only kid in the family with a record.”
Kevin came toward him and was now in striking range. “Leave Shane out of this.”
“I don’t want Shane at my house anymore.”
“He’s a legal adult. I can’t control where he goes.”
“That’s the problem.” Jared reached over and tapped Kevin’s chest to make his point. “You’ve never been able to control your own son.”
Passions of the Dead (A Detective Jackson Mystery/Thriller) Page 13
